La Rioja/Logroño

     Wednesday morning was cold. We had become accustomed to the summer heat but it was in the 60's on Wednesday as a cold front had moved through. We had a bit of a hurry but Izzy's parents wanted to see a little bit of Zaragoza because the basilica we saw the night before looked quite fun. By good luck, we had gotten a hotel room next to it so we didn't have a long walk in the morning. The style is baroque and it was built over a 200 year period starting in 1681. It's called Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar as a reference and homage to the virgin Mary. The outside had Spanish style roofing that was painted green, yellow, and blue. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside.

     After our short visit to the Basilica, we headed off to visit the Marqués de Riscal winery. It's located in the Rioja region of Spain, which is where the best wine in the country is made. Our destination was a short drive from the regional capital, Logroño in a town called Elciego. We heard about the winery from some private students. They recommended it as a fun and modern winery to visit. It was recently redesigned by the American/Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The guide told us they flew him over and opened two bottles of wine they had in storage from his birth year. Apparently it worked. The hotel building in the picture is their hotel and can cost up to 300 Euros a night. Interested in some lunch at the restaurant? They have tasting menus that start at 55 a person.

     The tour we took gave a brief history of the winery and where they ship their wines. Typically, Spanish wines have four different categories. Marqués de Riscal produces just three because they said the fourth one had a good enough quality to be bumped up to the next level so they did that not to lose money on sales. We saw the machines where they ferment the wine, press it, bottle it, store it, and ship it. The process was very interesting and we ended by tasting some of their white and red wines.

     A little buzzed on wine, we decided not to pay 200 Euros for lunch and went across the street to a fun restaurant that was built into some old wine caves. We had a great three course lunch for cheaper than one tasting menu at the hotel restaurant then headed back to Logroño to find our hotel.

     I have to say, finding the hotel was a first for me. It was located in a shopping center next to grocery stores and appears to have been a large warehouse store at some point. We took a nap and then headed in to Logroño to check out the sites. It's a small town of just over 150,000 people but quite nice. We found part of the trail the Camino de Santiago that Iz and I are planning to walk in September. There was an old church nearby that had cookies and a huge display explaining the walk and its origins.

     We finished our walk with a drink at a local bar and headed back to our hotel to play some games and call it an evening. Thursday and Friday, we'll be in San Sebastian. Since we were here in April, we aren't going to post any new pictures but if you didn't see them the first time, here is the link to our pictures from there. They might be better since the weather isn't promising such sunny skies while we'll be there.

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L'Escala and the Ruins of Empuries

     On Tuesday, we headed back out to the coast after a night in Girona. Catalunya is rife with tolls so we had our GPS take us through back roads. The day before, Izzy's dad and I started noticing a common thing on the back roads. Random girls sat at the edge of roads under an umbrella. It wasn't until we saw one not wearing any underwear and skirt that didn't cover her well enough that we realized they were rural call girls. Guess they don't just work in the city. Our first destination was Castelló de Empuries because I thought it was the site of an ancient Greek town. Wrong. It's a nice little medieval town but not ruins. So we moved on to Empuriabravas. It's on the coast and the name sounded familiar. Wrong. It's full of rich people and their yachts. They also have nice canals to connect the houses the ocean.

     After a few attempts, I was finally able to track down someone who knew what ruins I was talking about and could point me in the right direction. I wanted to go to L'Escala they told me. Great. So we packed it up and headed on south. I was told it was an hour drive south but the GPS said twenty minutes. This concerned me that maybe I wouldn't be going to where I wanted to. As we got closer, we started to see signs for the ruins with the name Empuries that I recalled the family mentioning to me. The entrance fee was only 2 for me and Izzy and free for her dad. Mom had to pay full price. Tough breaks for fully employed. The ruins are amazing though. They are preserved Greek and Roman settlements dating back from the 3rd century BC and they sit right on the coast. Her dad had a field day wondering around.

     Around three, Izzy, her mom, and I decided we wanted some beach time. It was then that we realized we couldn't find her dad. He had wandered off to some small crevice and managed to hide from us for thirty minutes. We finally gave up on him and went to see the Roman ruins and then on to the beach. We eventually found him wandering up and down the area outside the park. It was a bit of a pain to leave the park because they only gave us two hours of outside time due to parking regulations.

     After we swam and frolicked in the water, we gently put our sunburned bodies in the car for a five hour car ride to Zaragoza so we could visit a vineyard the next day. It was a long day.

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Figueres/Cadaqués - Spain

     Monday morning we set off for the hometown of Salvador Dalí, Figueres. It's located on the near the border with France and is home to a museum that he helped design and paint. While I don't underestimate the popularity of Dalí, I did underestimate how popular the museum in his hometown would be. The line was long and getting through the museum was even longer. It's laid out like a maze and feels difficult to navigate at times but its overall a great museum. Before going in, we stopped at a coffee shop for a quick breakfast drink. Izzy ran downstairs to use the bathroom and had to use a key to get in. I waited a few minutes and went down to get the key from her. As I turned the corner, I saw a short lady trying to put her key in the door and open it. Suddenly, I heard Izzy scream "stop!" The lady gasped and pulled her key out of the door. It quickly opened and Izzy popped out and stared her down. She later told me she thought it was me messing with her. Apparently, she was trying to unlock the door and the lady's key prevented her so thats why she yelled. The whole thing made me laugh for quite a while and I'm sure that lady has never been yelled at like that by a total stranger in a bathroom.

     When we finished with the Dalí musuem, I pulled out a list of places to visit given to me by a family I worked with in Madrid. They are from Catalunya and wanted me to visit some of their favorite places. The first place we chose is called Cadaqués. The town sits out on the Cap de Creus peninsula along the famous Spanish Costa Brava. The town was incredible. The drive there is through a mountainous national park with spectacular views of the valleys below. The buildings in the town are all white and they have small ten - fifteen yard wide mini beaches. We parked the car and walked around for a bit.

     After Cadaqués, a former haunt of Dalí, we went to another one of his favorite getaways, Port Lligat. It too is littered with small beaches of ten-fifteen yards wide. There were tons of small inlets and coves to get away to a private and secluded section of water to swim and relax. We saw several people hike a ways to get a more secluded piece of beach.

     Our final stop of the day was in another beach town called Roses. As we entered the city, we saw a local market and pulled in in hopes of getting some olives. We were disappointed to not find any but a smart man selling cheese gave us a slice of Manchegan cheese that inspired us to buy a pound of it. We spent that night and the next day randomly cutting slices of the cheese to eat. We also bought some Catalan sausage called fuet(pronounced like "fwet"). We took a long walk along the beach and had some drinks at a local bar. Nice way to end the day.

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Barcelona, Spain - Day 2

     On our second day in Barcelona, we woke up early so we could be some of the first in line to get into the Sagrada Familia church. When we got there, we found that we weren’t the only ones with this idea and the line we encountered was even longer than the previous day but we didn’t have the sun beating down on us. It didn’t take much waiting and we were finally in. The last time Iz and I visited the church, it was full of scaffolding and we were only allowed to walk around the perimeter. 

     This time, everything on the inside was pretty much done and we were able to enjoy it fully. There were a lot of windows that let in natural light and the design of the building was so refreshingly modern. The great thing about Gaudí is his attention to detail and his whimsical side, both of which are present in every detail of the church. It's amazing that Gaudí started building the church in 1883 and only saw it 1/4 of the way complete when he died. There are many arguments from the people of Barcelona about how much of the design is based in Gaudí's original design due to them being lost and the church being damaged by the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

     The second stop was another Gaudí landmark, Parque Güell. It sits north of the city and provides an amazing skyline view of the city. Iz and I remembered the long hike to get up to the park so we did some research and found a bus that drops you off right next to the front gate. The front gate sets a fun tone for the park with the two gingerbread houses. 

     Behind them are sets of stairs divided by fountains and the famous Gaudí lizard. A replica is available from every peddler trying to earn a Euro in the park. At the top of the steps is a cave full of columns and fun ceiling decorations. On top of the cave are the famous benches that form a huge half circle and provide a great place to soak up the view of the city. We felt more of an urge to sit in the shade after the people we saw sitting there left. It definitely made our time more enjoyable.

Izzy’s dad insisted we hike up to the crosses at the top. When he tried to leave, a most disagreeable old lady told him he shouldn’t come down that way because she was coming up that way. This did not go over too well. She learned better.

     After a quick bite and a game of cards at a pita shop, we made for our final place of the day, the Gothic Quarter. It’s famous for narrow streets, charmingly old yet dirty buildings, and a sense of history. The main gothic church was closed but we were able to visit the crypt. The women had to cover their shoulders to enter. Another relic of tradition some can’t let go of.

     To get back to our hotel, we went to the train station to catch a bus. Since we watched one drive off, we decided the twenty-minute wait would be better in the shade. In the meantime, a line of old ladies formed and when we returned to the stop, they were quite unhappy when we cut in front of them. The last are going first they said. I informed them they were because we’d been waiting in the shade so they can shut it. We ended our evening by having a bottle of wine and some tapas while watching fireworks celebrating the end of a festival in the small town outside of Barcelona where we stayed.

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